Sunday, July 1, 2012

TWO MINUTES

This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 29; the 29th Edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton. The topic for this month is 'TWO MINUTES'.

It was 1 pm.

The police vehicles hurried through the city, their sirens blaring and hastily docked at the market place. The uniformed men quickly stepped out and wasting no time proceeded to evacuate all the shoppers and shopkeepers with a lighting speed.

They used all means possible to bring the chaos under their control and within ten minutes the place was occupied by only the security forces, the common men now watching with growing curiosity at a safe distance.

Personnel with metal detectors and sniffing dogs started prowling the place, vigorously hunting.

A tip-off from one of their trustworthy informants about a possible terror attack had sprung them into the current deputation.

One of the German Shepherds ran towards a pillar at one corner, which was mainly used as a dumping point for all the garbage and started barking ferociously. The policemen hastened a metal detector to the spot and the loud beeps confirmed what had been sniffed by the dog.

They hastily rummaged through the filth and soon saw the sinister looking cardboard box beneath.

Gautam stepped forward looking like a robot in his outfit for the job.

Today was his last day in the force, end of ten years of service in the bomb squad.

He was passionate, intelligent and smart, a combination that had won him many laurels from all the superior ranks in the force.

As he cautiously moved forward, Shwetha’s tear streaked face flashed in his mind.

He took in a deep breath and furrowed his brows to erase away all thoughts and concentrate on the mission at hand.

He soon got the knowledge that he was racing with a timer attached to the explosive. He had just a little over two minutes left , ebbing away now.

Shwetha had been his childhood sweetheart and they had married less than a year ago.

Marriage had changed everything. Every day when he went back home, he would see fear embedded all over Shwetha;s face; melancholy deep in her eyes.

The last time he had gone home after an assignment , he had found Shwetha shivering and shaking, almost hysterical. She never said anything but he knew that his profession was subjecting her to a lot of torment.

He had decided to call it quits and go back to his father’s business. Ten years had given him a great deal of satisfaction and he wanted to go now. He owed Shwetha’s family a lot.

Today was his last day officially. A totally unexpected mission had come up. One last!

He was now knelt down near the cardboard box, Shekar, his compatriot, seated next to him.

The seconds were ticking. There was no time to move it to a less hazardous location.

Gautam knew that irrespective of training and experience, his success depended to an extent on his intuition and of course his destiny.

There was a fair percent chance of his attempt being unsuccessful.

He took the clipper to the blue wire. In a fraction of a second, he changed his mind and shifted it to the red.

Shekar’s expression was grim yet determined. His thumbs up was a go-ahead signal.

Flash, Shwetha;s face again.

As was his habit Gautam slowly said 'Om,One, two and three'. Gautam tightened his grasp.

***************************************************************

2 pm. Shwetha’s phone started beeping.

She had been busy packing her belongings unaware of the turn of events .

‘I love you, darling’ the message read.

The fellow Blog-a-Tonics who took part in this Blog-a-Ton and links to their respective posts can be checked here. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

My heart was sinking till I reached the last paragraph. And, then the message perked me up. So happy that Gautam was indeed alive and Shwetha was not even aware of what had transpired. Good, gripping story!

Confession: I read all the above comments before replying :PMy take is that a lot of people thought it is an open story as the they might have overlooked the timings. And even when we are mentioning about the timings i can think that the operation might have took around an hour and he messaged Shwetha just before starting to diffuse the bomb? Or maybe it was delivered later?The fact that it made me think so much (^^) makes this post more memorable.Amazing. ATB.

When I wrote the post, I thought 2 pm was after the whole thing was over in short a happy ending. After reading the way everyone interpreted , I too thought of the angle where the operation may have taken longer...But I did mention that police cleared the place in ten mins and that there was a timer with two mins left...So the only place that could have taken more time is in the hunt by the dogs...Well, I thought so much on my own post after reading all the comments :D

I agree Bikram. Another similar profession is the fire fighting unit. Recently I read somewhere that the firefighters in India do not get the attire meeting universal standards for the job.Hats off to these mem who put their own lives at risk for the sake of others.

This story reminded me of the story of yours which recently got published in a magazine, even though they are unrelated. Brilliant, I was totally immersed into the story. Lovely to see the happy ending. :))

Hi akshay, That story ends with a similar line and the Girl's name is Shwetha in that as well . That should be the reason why you got reminded of that one. :D thanks for reading and for commenting amidst all the IBL related work :)

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